Eight Reasons Employees Are Losing Confidence

22% of respondents are concerned about getting laid off in the next six months, up from 16% a year ago.

Recovery? What recovery? If your IT employees seem skittish lately, it's because overall worker confidence has fallen to levels not seen since the peak of the recession, according to a recent survey from Glassdoor, an executive job-search site. As a CIO, you need to be aware of these sentiments, as a decline in morale could impact job performance. The upshot: Continuing trouble signs -- especially in the jobs outlook -- are taking a toll on Americans. On the positive side, employees express more satisfaction about their jobs now than they did a year ago, and company practices with respect to layoffs, furloughs and other measures in reality (despite worker perceptions) are on the decline, according to survey results. The sense of pessimism apparently stems from expectations. "It's clear that the psyche of American workers has been measurably shaken as a result of recent discouraging economic reports," says Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert, as well as co-author of the book "Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business" (FT Press/Available now). "While company layoffs have abated in recent months, employees may be preparing themselves for what they think will be another round of belt-tightening if the economy doesn't improve." More than 2,200 U.S. adults took part in the research.